e- ISSN: 2394 -5532 p- ISSN: 2394 -823X Scientific Journal Impact Factor: 3.762 International Journal of Applied And Pure Science and Agriculture www.ijapsa.com CONSUMPTIO N OF INSECTS AS FOOD IN THREE VILLAGES OF NORTH WEST DISTRICT ,BOTSWANA John Cassius Moreki 1 and Sethunya Obatre 2 1Department of Animal Science and Production, Botswana University of Agriculture and Natural Resources , Private Ba g 0027, Gaborone, Botswana. 2Department of Agricultural Economics, Education and ExtensExtensionion , BotswanaUniversity of Agriculture and Natural Resources , Private Bag 0027, Gaborone, Botswana . Abstract This study investigated the consumption of ed ible insects in Nxaraga, Sehithwa and Shorobe villages of the North West district of Botswana. Information was gathered using a structured questionnaire which was administered to 60 respondents across the three villages and also through direct observation. A total of six insect species were identified belonging to six families and four orders (i.e., Coleoptera, Isoptera, Lepidoptera and Orthoptera) with t he two most consumed orders being Lepidoptera and Coleoptera. Carebara vidua F. Smith (33.3%) was the most consumed followed by Sternocera orissa Buq. (21.7%), Agrius convolvuli L. (15.0%), Oryctes boas Fabr.(13.3%), Imbrasia belina Westwood (10.0%) and Lo custa migratoria (6.7%). The study revealed that insects were abundant during and/or immediately after the rainy season. This implies that insects can be harvested and preserved during the time of abundan ce to maximize their utilization in meeting the human protein needs. The common methods of collecting insects were hand picking, trapping and digging. Insects were prepared for consumption by boiling, frying or roasting. Insects were used for consumption (52%) and sale (48%). Entomophagy is a source of food and income indicating that it plays an important role in the rural economy . Keywords: Botswana; edible insects ;entomophagy; food, income; livelihoods I. INTRODUCTION Protein deficiency is a nutritional problem in most developing countries (Muller and Krawinkel, 2005) due to over-dependence on conventional animal protein sources such as beef, mutton, pork and poultry, which are in limited supply (Jacob etal., 2013). One of the Millennium Development objectives of the United Nations wa s to fight world hunger by ensuring affordable protein consumption that aims at reducing the amount of land, water and other resources used, as well as, preservation of biodiversity (Mackiewicz, 2010). However, with the global shortage of animal protein, t here are emerging future prospects that focus on exploring unconventional protein sources including insects. Xiaoming et al. (2010) reported that e dible insects are rich in protein and amino acid s, especially essential amino acid s for the human body.Additionally, Maurer et al. (2015) suggested that insects are likely to play an important role as sources of protein for livestock in the future. Entomophagy is the consumption of insects by humans ( Jacob et al. , 2013; van Huis et al. , 2013; Pal and Roy, 2014) and t his practice has been part of the human history for many centuries. However, Durst and Shono (2010) observed that entomophagy has declined in many societies, and that it has often been shunned as old -fashioned, dirty or unhealthy. Entomophagy is associated with the hungry and the poor (Bertrand, 2014) perhaps explaining why it is commonly practised in the Developing countries. In many western societies, entomophagy was and still is a taboo (van Huis et al. , 2013). Insects form part of most tradit ional diets of at least 2 billion people worldwide mainly in @IJAPSA-2016, All rights Reserved 241 International Journal of Applied and Pure Science and Agriculture (IJAPSA) Volume 02, Issue 2, [February - 2016] e-ISSN: 2394-5532, p -ISSN: 2394-823X Asia, Africa and Latin America (FAO, 2013; Pal and Roy, 2014 ). In most African countries , insects are gathered from the forest habitats by women and children for consumption (Solomon and Prisca, 2012). It is estimated (van Huis, 2013) that there are about 1900 edible insect groups that provide nutrition to humans with t he most common groups being beetles, caterpillars, bees , ants, grasshoppers, crickets, larvae, termites, wasps, locusts, moth, bugs and cicadas. Tsvangirayi (2013) found that Mophane worm (Imbrasia belina Westwood ) known in Botswana as phane contains five times the amount of protein as beef. The protein content of edible insects ranges from 30% (wood worms) to 80% (s ome wasp species) (Melo et al ., 2011). Although the consumption of insects has great benefits, there is lack of awareness of entomophagy and its advantages as part of the solution to protein deficient malnutrition in the Developing countries (Jacob etal ., 2013). van Huis (2003) observed that insects as a source of food have been neglected in the past and should receive more attention in the future. Food shortages particularly animal protein, are predicted for the 21 st century, hence it is necessary to look for new sources of animal protein (Mitsuhashi, 2010). Therefore, a study was undertaken to document information on insects used for human consumpti on and their contribution to the livelihoods of people in Nxaraga, Sehithwa and Shorobe in the North West District of Botswana. II. MATERIALS AND METHODS 2.1 Selection of study sites This study was carried out in Sehithwa, Nxaraga and Shorobe in the North West District (Figure 1) during December 2014. The following are location coordinates for each village: Sehithwa 20º 28' 00'' S and 22 43' 00'' E, Nxaraga 19º 33 '42 21'' S and 23º 12 '23 32'' E, and Shorobe 19° 45' 43'' S and 23º 40' 37'' E (CSO 2011). The distances of Sehithwa, Nxaraga and Shorobe from Maun (the capital of North West District) are 97 km, 35 km and 45 km, respectively . Furthermore, Sehithwa, Nxaraga and Shorobe have estimated human populations of 1478 , 232 and 955, respectively (CSO, 2011 ). Figure 1: Map of North West District showing research sites which are indicated by triangles Source: http://www.orc.ub.bw 2.2 Sample design A random sampling technique was used to select 60 respondents (Sehithwa - 30, Shorobe - 20 and Nxaraga- 10) from the study area . The sample size was proportional to the human population of the three villages. @IJAPSA-2016, All rights Reserved 242 International Journal of Applied and Pure Science and Agriculture (IJAPSA) Volume 02, Issue 2, [February - 2016] e-ISSN: 2394-5532, p-ISSN: 2394-823X 2.3 Data collection and analysis A structured questionnaire was administered to 60 respondents in order to gather information on edible insects in the study area. Interviews were conducted in Setswana (a local language) and responses written in English. Data were also collected through direct observation and from secondary sources. The following data were collected: socio-economic characteristics (i.e. , age, sex, educational level) of the respondents, edible insects, time of insects’ availability, how insects were prepared or processed before consumption, how insects were preserved, who was involved in insect collection, marketing and sale of insects.Data were analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) for Windows, version 15.0 (2015). Summary statistics were presented by tables and figures. III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS 3.1 Socio-economic characteristics Table 1 gives socio-economic characteristics of respondents. About 57% of the respondents were males. Previous study ofObopile and Seeletso (2013) showed that the majority (65.27%) of the respondents were females. In this study, the majority (31.7%) of the respondents were aged 41-55 years with fewer (13.3%) respondents aged over 70 years (Table 1). Previous study by Moreki (2014) showed that 31.03% of the respondents were aged >60 years while Obopile and Seeletso (2013) found that 23.95% of the respondents were aged 46-55 years. About 37% of the respondents in this study never attended formal school while only 1.7% of the respondents had tertiary education. Similarly, Obopile and Seeletso (2013) and Moreki (2014) reported that the majority (37%) of the respondents had no formal education. The respondents that never attended formal school are likely not to comprehend technical extension message. Table 1: Socio-economic characteristics of the respondents in the study area Attributes Number of responses Nxaraga Sehithwa Shorobe Gender Nxaraga Sehithwa Shorobe Total Male 6 (60.00) 15 (50.00) 13 (65.00) 34 (56.6) Female 4 (40.00) 15 (50.00) 7 (35.00) 26 (43.3) Age (years) 10-25 1 (14.20) 4 (57.14) 2 (28.57) 7 (11.7) 26-40 1 (9.09) 4 (36.26) 6 (54.54) 11 (18.3) 41-55 3 (15.79) 9 (47.37) 7 (36.84) 19 (31.7) 56-70 4 (26.67) 4 (26.67) 8 (53.33) 15 (25.0) >70 1 (12.50) 5 (62.50) 2 (25.00) 8 (13.3) Educational level Never attended formal school 3 (13.64) 15 (68.18) 4 (18.18) 22 (36.7) Primary 3 (16.67) 7 (38.89) 8 (44.44) 18 (30.0) Junior Certificate 4 (23.53) 6 (35.29) 7 (41.18) 17 (28.3) O level/BGCSE 0 (00.00) 1 (50.00) 1 (50.00) 2 (3.3) University/college 0 (00.00) 1 (100.00) 0 (00.00) 1 (1.7) Employment status Employed 5 (50.00) 7 (23.33) 8 (40.00) 20 (66.7) Unemployed 5 (50.00) 23 (76.67) 12 (60.00) 40 (33.3) Marital status Married 3 (12.00) 12 (48.00) 10 (40.00) 25 (41.7) Single 4 (23.53) 7 (41.17) 6 (35.29) 17 (28.3) Widowed 3 (16.67) 11 (61.11) 4 (22.22) 18 (30.0) *Values in brackets are percentages @IJAPSA-2016, All rights Reserved 243 International Journal of Applied and Pure Science and Agriculture (IJAPSA) Volume 02, Issue 2, [February - 2016] e-ISSN: 2394-5532, p-ISSN: 2394-823X The majority (67%) of the respondents in this study were unemployed while the remainder was employed perhaps indicating that the respondents did not have economic power to purchase conventional protein sources such as beef, mutton and chicken; and are therefore likely to suffer from protein deficiency.